The Easiest Lemon Curd Ever

Don't fall off your chair in awe over at the styliest photo ever on my blog!

This fantasticly easy recipe is courtesy of my blog friend Tammy. The great thing about it is that it's made in the microwave with no faffing about over a double boiler. My mixture looked a tad overcooked but a few seconds in the food processor and voila - velvety, unctuous, luciousness.

Tammy's Lemon Curd

Ingredients
200 grams butter
200 grams sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
120 mls lemon Juice
6 eggs, beaten and strained through a sieve

Method
Put the butter, sugar, zest and juice in a microwave bowl
Cover with gladwrap and microwave for 4 minutes on high
Stir then whisk in strained eggs
Microwave uncovered for 2 minutes
Stir with a whisk and then whizz in a food processor for about 30 seconds
Pour into sterilised jars
Store in the fridge

I have a new favourite way to use lemon curd - mix equal quantities of Greek yoghurt and lemon curd and serve with fresh summer berries.

There are some more lemon curd combinations I really want to try including a lemony tiramisu. I stumbled on this recipe after a reader left a comment and I thought hmmm why do I know that name? And then I realised it was a published food writer who was commenting on my lil ole blog. What a proud moment. Check out Sue Story's blog here. She is a contributing writer to one of my most used magazines and her Lamb Tagine recipe in Annabel Langbein's book The Best of Annabel Langbein is fantastic.

Preserved Lemons

Around this time of year I usually start making some preserves to give away as Christmas gifts. I thought I should try and do something with those pesky lemons of mine and thought that a nice big jar of preserved lemons would make an excellent Christmas gift. My first hurdle was to find a jar big enough to hold the lemons. Then I discovered that my lemons were in fact too big to fit more than about 3 of them in a jar. There was no option but for me to go to the supermarket and buy lemons which seemed completely ridiculous since the whole reason for me wanting to make preserved lemons was to use up my own supply. The lemons I purchased were imported from the US and probably Lisbon variety.

There are lots of recipes out there for Moroccan Preserved Lemons and if you google preserved lemons you'll find plenty of other blog entries but there's not a lot of variation in what you do.

Preserved Lemons

What you need
A very large glass jar with a lid
LOTS of lemons
Salt
A bay leaf or two
A cinnamon quill

Method
Wash and dry your lemons
Cut a little off each end of the lemon
Cut your lemon almost into quarters but leaving one end intact (I really don't see why you can't cut them completely into quarters and if I'd done that I could have fit them in the jar)
Sprinkle each lemon generously with salt
Place in the jar
Fill the jar with lemon juice
Poke the bayleaf and cinnamon quill in the jar
Seal and leave for at least a month before using

To use
Rinse the lemon and discard the flesh
Slice the lemon rind finely and add to your chosen dish be it a tagine or a salad or even muffins like Barbara from Winos and Foodies did. I tried Barbara's muffin recipe and they were delicious.

When Life Gives You Plums....

.... Make plum jam!


I was given a big bag of plums from someone at work and thought I would make a batch of jam. Although I’ve been making chutneys and relishes for regularly for the last few years it seems like a frillion years since I made jam. Things were going great, my jars were sterilised, my fruit and sugar bubbling away.


... and then my mum phoned me – right in the middle of the “stir constantly” stage. Frick on a Stick! After a brief conversation I went back to my jam making; stirring, stirring stirring. I looked at the timer on the microwave and thought – great, only seven minutes and 23 seconds to go. WRONG! I’d forgotten to put the timer and was looking at the actual time on the microwave clock. Who knows exactly how long I’d been stirring; I know I started it when the news still on and that finished at 7.00 pm. The recipe called for cooking the jam for 18 minutes so I think I may have overdone it, just a tad.


Frick on a Stick on a Brick! ……my mother phoned again as I was pouring the jam into the jars. “What part of I’m in the middle of fricking jam making don’t you understand mother??? “ She got her own back when I phoned her later and managed to time my call to be right in the middle of her favourite soap - “What part of I’m watching Coronation Street don’t you understand?” she asked. I love you mum!

Actually it didn't set quite as hard as I thought it might. Mum tells me that the trick is to stir a little hot water into the jar and then keep your jar in the refrigerator. Another idea I read for overcooked jam is to use it in thumbprint cookies. I think Dorie Greenspan has a recipe in her book Baking: from my home to yours.

An article in a recent Essentially Food magazine on homemade preserves suggested that you should write down the time you start to cook something. Usually with cake baking it’s not so much of an issue because you can test for doneness with a skewer or see if it’s starting to brown or pull away from the sides of the tin. I usually go by the smell but sometimes by the time you can smell a cake it’s already overbaked. Given that I’ve forgotten to put the timer on twice in two days I think that writing down the time may be a very good suggestion to adopt.

My most recent timerless cooking fiasco before the plum jam was a chocolate cake which I ended up giving to the birds because I didn’t want my baking reputation at work to be besmirched. While I was breaking it into pieces I suddenly had the thought that I could have just split it, filled it with whipped cream and put a really nice ganache on top and that would probably have offset the dryness but by then it was too late. Oh well, never mind.

To make this a bit of fun, a free (and pre-loved/read I might add) cooking magazine to the first commenter who can tell me who I stole my expletive from.

Plum Jam
based on the Edmonds Cookbook recipe

Ingredients
2 kgs/approx 4 1/2 lbs plums
1 1/2 cups water
6 cups sugar

Method
Place all together in a large pot
Bring to the boil
Skim out stones and skins as you go
Boil rapidly, stirring constantly, for 18 minutes or until jam tests set
(to test jam drop a teaspoon of jam onto a chilled saucer and leave for a moment. If you can run your finger through it and leave a clear trail your jam is good to go)
Bottle in sterilised jars

Tomato Chilli Jam

When you go to a cooking class at Ruth Pretty's Cooking School, more often than not you’ll be served her delicious Tomato Chilli Jam with morning tea. It is one of those perfect flavour combinations – slightly sweet but tart tomatoes over creamy cream cheese, atop salty rice crackers, garnished with a fresh snippet of coriander. YUM! It is not dissimilar to the very popular American styled jalapeno jelly.

This past summer, my father-in-law gave me some homegrown tomatoes – big juicy orange ones. I diced them up, put them in the freezer and earmarked them for tomato chilli jam. When I cooked them I was a surprised and even a little disappointed to see that they turned red, like regular tomatoes. The tomato chilli jam calls for ginger, fish sauce and surprise, surprise - chillies. I was a tad generous with everything to the point where I would have had to label my preserves as “rip yer lips off tomato chilli jam with a hint of fish”. My solution was to make a second batch without the fish sauce, ginger or chilli and mix the two together in the final stages. I've ended up with a slightly more caramelized version due to the extra cooking but it's at least edible. So edible in fact that I've polished off the jar I kept for myself jar and need to make some more.

You can buy Tomato Chilli Jam at Ruth's shop and the recipe appears in Ruth Pretty's Favourite Recipes. However, Ruth has generously shared her recipe with the world on her website and I urge you to make use of your summer tomatoes and try the recipe for yourself.

Feijoa Relish

I know it's wayyyy past Feijoa season but I recently made a batch of Feijoa Relish from some fruit I prepared and froze this past winter. Feijoas are one of those fruit that you either love or hate; obviously I'm in the latter camp because I like them served any way I can get them. Quite fortunately for me they are an extremely prolific fruit and anyone who has a tree in their backyard can't get rid of the fruit fast enough.

This relish recipe I use is from Alison Holst. It's fabulous on crackers with some tasty cheese.

Feijoa Relish

Ingredients
1 and 1/4 cups white or malt vinegar
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 large apple, chopped finely
8 large feijoas, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup sugar, white or brown
1 tablespoon mixed spice
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed (optional)

Method
Bring all the ingredients to the boil and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally
When fairly thick, ladle into sterilised jars and seal


I'm participating in New Zealand Blogging by Post hosted by Emma, the Laughing Gastronome and because this is a local exchange with no customs requirements to worry about we have the opportunity to send homemade goodies to our nominated partner. I do hope that the person I'm sending to is a feijoa fan and I guess I'll find out in a few days.